Senior police officer Ghulam Aali Lashari says the five civilians died when a bomb ripped through a crowded market in the town of Sibi in Baluchistan province.

He says the attack also wounded 12 people.

Another police official, Shehbaz Khan, says a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying security officers in another southwestern town, Dera Bugti, also on Thursday. Three officers were killed and two were wounded in that attack.

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No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings but nationalists in Baluchistan have long waged a low-level insurgency to pressure the government to get more wealth from resources such as natural gas that are extracted from the province.